The picture on MaraPost of the new Justice Minister flanking the obviously lying Information Minister at a hurriedly organized press briefing to lie to the nation that ‘the State President was receiving death threats and that there was a plot to kill her and her family because of her determined fight against corruption and fraud in government’ saved me from yet again being the victim of my own incredulous gullibility as I was preparing to be ‘balled’ over into believing the new Justice Minister’s ‘tough talk’ on fighting corruption.  The newly appointed Justice Minister was deliberately brought over to give credence to (frank) the ‘crap’ from the new Information Minister.

To allow oneself to be so barefacedly used by the same person who told the nation that the First Citizen had already declared her assets in-spite of the First Citizen’s indication to the contrary all along laid bare why the new Justice Minister was roped in and spoke volumes about the new Justice Minister’s mandate: to unfurl elaborate ‘plans’ to root-out corruption and fraud in government without actually doing anything about it but, more importantly,  help the First Citizen and her government lie its way out of ‘the cash-gate scandal’ and no more.  Why should any sane Malawian squander any of his/her scarce and valuable trust ‘capital’ in the Ministry of Justice (the ACB, the DPP and the courts) and the Law Enforcers when it is almost a month since Frank Mwanza was first linked to Lutepo (a very senior ruling PP official) and yet no action has been taken against Lutepo (the first identified beneficiary of K1.2B worth of the Capital Hill thieving) to-date.

In the new Justice Minister’s maiden speech to parliament, he almost worked himself into a frenzy to portray his appointing master as the face of ‘the fight against corruption, fraud and looting of government resources’.  There were implied references to a reverential, sacrosanct, could-do-no-wrong and beyond reproach appointing master that values ‘uprightness’. 

In sharp contrast, there is an unmistakable common thread running through such nefarious scams as the 2001 maize scam or the 2013 maize scam or the Nigeria oil scam or the Treasury ‘Apollo’ scam (well before there was the now infamous 2013 Capital Hill cash-gate scam) in the personage of the very appointing master of the new Justice Minister.   The new Justice Minister’s efforts to portray his appointing authority as the face of ‘the fight against corruption, fraud and looting of government resources’ is a brazen insult to the intelligence of most Malawians. 

The nation is aware that the First Citizen’s foundation’s plan to ‘purchase’ the Admarc Welfare flats are at a very advanced stage.  The nation was also told a few weeks ago that the First Citizen has been ‘swimming’ in monies since the age of 21 but apparently could only afford her sons nondescript business opportunities (including running a not-so-popular joint in Ndirande) but within 18 months of her ascending to the high office these sons are now business tycoons and magnates with a capacity to secure and execute K1.4B government contracts and more and are now new owners of a myriad of business conglomerates across the nation. 

The decision to abandon plans to purchase maize from Zambia (where we have been purchasing the sand-spiced fertilizer) in preference for a more costly destination should raise alarm bells in most citizens.  If all this is not using ones office for personal gain or placing oneself in a situation where one’s material interests conflict with the responsibilities and duties of one’s office(s), then what is?!!!

Picture this: A new administration comes into government and the first thing it tells the nation is that ‘state coffers are empty—looted clean!’ but, interestingly, takes no interest in investigating how they were ‘emptied’.  We learn some 18 months later that actually the previous administration had left behind a report about how it ‘emptied’ the state coffers which report the new administration made a conscious decision to ‘keep under wraps’ upon getting into government (awaiting a more opportune time?)! Should any sane Malawian believe the new administration’s out-of-sync choruses of its ‘resolve to fight corruption, fraud and looting of government resources’?

 Should any sane Malawian pay any attention to the new administration’s mantra of ‘being the first administration keen on fighting corruption, fraud and looting of government resources’ when it paid no attention to a ‘credible’ report on previous Capital Hill thieving of well in excess of K90B or is it that they used this report to ‘beat/better/perfect’ their looting ways (K20B in 18 months is certainly better than K90B in 7 years)?  Is the new administration not shamelessly revealing the existence of this report now (18 months late and after using it for 18 months to do a better job) because they have been caught looting with their hands in the cookie jar by nature’s own ways and wish to divert our attention to the previous administration’s looting which report is available? To show how dizzyingly warped our values of justice are we have no qualms about arresting, in a flash, a journalist who ‘spoke out of turn’ while the embezzlers of billions tax-payers’ money are wining and dining with the appointing authorities.  We would probably be happy if anyone writing on the matter was arrested because our interest has never been bringing to book anyone who took part in the thieving orgies at Capital Hill.   I am truly ashamed to be a Malawian!

The Second Citizen’s ‘cash-gate scandal’ report is a good case-study reading of managers that do not know or understand the duties and functions of offices and officers they control and are responsible for.  It is a good case-study reading of managers that have no inkling of the key competences and skills required of prospective officers (or which key competences and skills the hired officers should be presumed to be holding themselves out to possess) which should form the basis for their assessment of how they discharge or fail to discharge their duties.  

It makes for a good case-study reading of a cabinet (the President, VP, and the rest of the cabinet) devoid of any managing skills (the same must be extended to bodies with oversight functions such as parliamentary committees).  It is a laundry list of duties and functions expected of hired controlling officers’ which they shirked and duties and functions they miserably failed to perform and  key competences and skills required of them (or which they held out themselves to possess) they have been shown to lack.  We should be talking about charging these folks with criminal dereliction of duties, criminal negligence and criminal breach of the duty of care for failing to do what they were employed to do and lacking competences and skills they held themselves to possess when they were hired, and nothing less.

The nation is equally aware that the ruling party is also using other more subtle and cunning ways of fleecing huge sums of money from government (probably–ten-fold–more than it gets from fiddling with IFMIS!) which include obtaining sizeable cuts from negotiations of development agreements for most mineral wealth licenses, concessions and contracts.   Other ‘cuts’ are obtained from construction contracts through characters like the Ministers for Works, Energy and Agriculture & Climate Change.

I find the AG’s advice to the Speaker not to make public the contents of the purported disclosure list of Assets and Liabilities by the First Citizen, citing the supremacy of the First Citizen’s privacy rights (which I must assume extends to all of us) over her employers right to know, but wants us to believe that after the new Assets Declaration Bill is passed this will no longer be the case (the supremacy of privacy rights will be suspended?) very troubling.  Or is it that nothing will change, meaning we still not have access to anybody’s disclosure list of assets and liabilities even though the law allows that?   Or did the AG pre-judge the issue? 

The weakest aspects of the Assets Declaration Bill are the powers given to the First Citizen to be the appointing authority for the Unit’s director and a requirement to apply for this information with a possibility of the application being rejected if the justification is ‘deemed unsatisfactory’ (Kenyans and Non-Kenyans can access Kenyatta Uhuru’s assets and liabilities declaration information without giving any justification whatsoever!).  And Section 213 of the Constitution already provides for most of what will be tabled as the new Assets Declaration Bill.  The fact that it was not finalized speaks to the lack of political will by all affected parties to see it operationalized and I see no change this time around.

Let us be seriously talking about constituting a care-taker administration to see this nation through ‘credible’ investigations of the shameful Capital Hill thieving and ‘free, fair and transparent’ 2014 elections.  A government that shamelessly loots resources meant to serve the very people that put it in office will not give a hoot about stealing an election!

—Malawians United Against Impoverishment by Thievery and Incompetence—

Contribution by:  Chisala, Maxwell L.

LILONGWE(MaraPost)—Malawi College of Health Sciences has announced names of successful candidates who have been selected into various residential training programmes at its Campuses in Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba. 

In a statement, the college is informing the successful candidates to report at their Campuses on 4th November The statement further says that the “2013 Candidates will be required to pay annual Financial Contribution of K55,000.00.”

“The first instalment of not less than K27,500.00 should be paid on the day of registration, “adding “candidates who fail to report at the expiry of two weeks from the opening date will have their places declared vacant.”

MaraPost hereby brings you full list of the successful candidates below.

 

Below is the full List

 

{iframe width=”690″ height=”600″ }https://www.maravipost.com/mcresults2013_2014.pdf{/iframe}

Today, 25 October 2013, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court), seized for the first time of a question on the interpretation of article 63(1) of the Court’s Statute, ruled that the absence of an accused person from trial is permissible under exceptional circumstances if the accused has explicitly waived his right to be present at trial.

The Appeals Chamber concluded that a Trial Chamber enjoys discretion under article 63(1), which states that “[t]he accused shall be present during the trial”, but that such discretion is limited and must be exercised with caution.

 

Holding that the excusal of an accused from physical presence at trial should not become the rule, the Appeals Chamber unanimously reversed the Trial Chamber V(a) decision of 18 June 2013, which granted a conditional excusal for William Samoei Ruto from continuous presence at his trial. The Appeals Chamber concluded that the Trial Chamber had interpreted the scope of its discretion too broadly. Trial Chamber V(a) may make a new decision on the matter in light of the criteria set in the Appeals Chamber decision.

The Appeals Chamber held that before granting an accused excusal from physical presence at trial, the possibility of alternative measures must be considered, including but not limited to changes to the trial schedule or temporary adjournment. Furthermore, any absence should be considered on a case-by-case basis and be limited to that which is strictly necessary. Finally, the rights of the accused must be fully ensured in his or her absence, in particular through representation by counsel.

A summary of the judgment was read out in open court today by the Presiding Judge in this appeal, Judge Sang-Hyun Song. In its judgment, the Appeals Chamber considered arguments made by the Prosecutor and Mr Ruto’s Defence, as well as the joint observations by the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of Burundi, the State of Eritrea and the Republic of Uganda. Judge Kourula and Judge Ušacka appended a separate opinion to the judgment.

Background

On 18 June 2013, Trial Chamber V(a) had conditionally granted, by majority, William Samoei Ruto’s request to be excused from being physically present continuously throughout the trial, with the exception of a number of sessions including the opening and closing statements of all parties and participants; when victims present their views and concerns in person during the trial; the delivery of judgment in the case and, if applicable, sentencing and reparations; and any other attendance that may be ordered by the Chamber. After authorization by the Trial Chamber, the Prosecutor filed its appeal against this decision on 29 July 2013. On 20 August 2013, the Appeals Chamber granted suspensive effect to the Prosecutor’s appeal against Trial Chamber V(a)’s decision, pending a final determination on Mr Ruto’s presence at trial. Consequently, Mr Ruto was requested to be present during all trial hearings pending the Appeals Chamber judgment delivered today.

The trial in the case The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang opened on 10 September 2013 in the presence of the accused.

Blantyre, Malawi, Oct. 23 (MaraviPost) _ South African High Commissioner to Malawi Cassandra Mbuyane-Mokone was summoned in the capital, Lilongwe, Thursday by Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Ephraim Mganda Chiume to explain President Jacob Zuma’s ‘disparaging remarks’ against the southern African country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed.

“Her Excellency Mbuyane-Mokone explained to the Hon. Minister that President Zuma was quoted out of context,” she said. “As far as we are concerned the issue is resolved, it’s now water under the bridge. Malawi and South Africa enjoy good relations.” 

 

Jacob Zuma was defending the government’s plans to introduce e-tolls on the highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria on Wednesday when he made the remark that angered a lot of Malawians.

“We can’t think like Africans in Africa generally. We’re in Johannesburg…. This is not some national road in Malawi,” he said.

Zuma’s spokesperson Mac Maharaj also said in a statement that Zuma’s remark had been taken out of context and blown out of proportion.

But these remarks infuriated a lot of Malawians who took to twitter and facebook to lampoon Zuma. Stanley Onjezani Kenani, a Malawian writer based in Geneva, Switzerland, wrote Maharaj, saying Zuma’s remarks were ‘condescending towards sovereign states’.

“I have just read your ‘clarification’ of the remarks made by the President of South Africa, which are most disparaging to the Republic of Malawi. Despite your efforts to clarify this statement, it remains entirely unclear to me why President Zuma mentioned Malawi in his analogy.

It can only be with one intention, that is, to use, by way of example, what he considers the most backward nation, one that thinks most ‘African.’ It does not escape some of us that most South Africans, despite the help they got from fellow African states to fight apartheid, do not consider themselves African, but it scares us when such thoughts are shared by the President of the Republic of South Africa.”-maravipost

In one article I said mind of a child is a sponge, it absorbs yet it is a mirror it reflects.

University students are children. They can absorb and reflect. If a politically compromised staff is left close to them we are mocking their cause.

Lecturer Jessie Kabwila has made achoice to be a partisan politician. When people choose and they end up choosing danger do you protect them? Jessie thinks classroom is the best place to campaign now that elections are just next year. People like Kabwila are a mortal danger we must mourn.

In my view government must accept her constructive resignation to protect the
students from political drunkness. She has lost a moral character to be in a non partisan classroom. If she insists a formal dismissal is better.

Remember we have a responsibility to protect our students from politics. It could be possible damage was already done but it is not too late yet.

FACT: Jessie is an executive member of Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Double negative!

Last week political party spokespersons well falling over themselves, trying to explain why Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority’s (Macra) recent study concluded that the ruling People’s Party (PP) is the most covered political party on Malawi airwaves.

PP’s Hophmally Makande opined that the findings simply reflected that his party was the most active than the rest. His Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) counterpart, Nicolas Dausi attributed the findings to Malawi Broadcasting Station’s (MBC) bias towards the ruling party. While United Democratic Front’s (UDF) Ken Ndanga wondered if the study should be taken seriously after all, given that previous Macra studies were challenged, notably by Capital FM.

This was politics as usual. Everyone tried to defend their political parties the best they could. Yet, journalism and news values are primary features to explaining Macra’s findings; politics is secondary.

The findings come from 11 days, this is not enough and it is a serious flaw insofar as the research methodology goes. There could be factors that led to one political party being covered more than others during those 11 days – the “cash-gate” scandal, for instance involved more PP officials having to defend their party in the media. This could have easily led to PP receiving more coverage than others could. Macra should have cleared these grey areas; the best way is to replicate these findings over several months to reflect shifting dominant political discourse in the media.

However, it is not surprising, especially in developing democracies such as Malawi that a ruling party gets more coverage than those in opposition. This has more to do with journalism than anything attributed to. What makes news (news values) has an inherent bias. News values have it that actions of the elite and famous people are always “newsworthy”. By definition of this particular news value, a cabinet minister is more “newsworthy” than their equivalent in the opposition.

This means journalists are more likely to speak or quote cabinet ministers than any political figures – frontbenchers are more newsworthy than backbenchers. Malawi does not have a cabinet of technocrats – they all belong or they are sympathisers of the ruling party, ready to work for and defend Amayi at all cost. Barely do they utter a sentence without mentioning their political party and the president in their interviews. Malawi politics hardly draw a line between party and government statements.

Various studies by credible international organisations such as Article, Commonwealth and Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa conducted around the last three presidential and parliamentary elections period in Malawi have consistently identified media bias towards the incumbency.

Dausi got it right when told The Nation newspaper (17/10/2013) that MBC TV is the “propaganda media”. Yet, the fact is that even if MBC TV was not included in the study the outcome could not have been much different – even if online and print media is included. News values give advantage to those in position of authority.

Yes, time again there are pressures on the media from the government, directly or via its regulator, which takes advantage of its power to regulate and a near monopoly on advertising revenue by the government. There are numerous cases when Macra has restricted coverage on events that are against the interests of a ruling party. Libel laws remain a threat. Government departments and parastatals in the past have been ordered to stop placing advertising in media organisations that refuse to cover news in favour of a party in power.

In 1999, Sam Mpasu, then a cabinet minister under UDF administration admitted to Article19 that UDF government had this policy in place. Likewise, DPP government did likewise, banning advertisement in The Nation newspaper. Everything considered these are isolated cases. The fact is that majority of the news coverage has little to do with outside influence; it is shaped the very definition of news and news values.

The best example is how The Nation Newspaper covered the story on Macra findings; the newspaper only interviewed representatives of the country’s major political parties, apart from MCP. It is most likely that there was no one immediately from MCP to comment, the rest of the political establishment was ignored – here is the news hierarchy at play, the parties are considered more important than the rest.

It is almost impossible to imagine this story published without quoting a ruling party official. That is why the state president is always first on news bulletins followed by her deputy then ministers (on a day that all had something to say) this is the case on radio stations. What is newsworthy is the person giving information, not the information being given. In journalism, this is a natural order of things.

A renowned American dissident Noam Chomsky and Edward S Herman noticed that journalism needs a steady and reliable flow of news in order to meet their daily news demands and schedules. They observed that the attribute of official sources give the media the claim to objectivity and to protect themselves from accusations and criticism of bias and the threat of libel suits. The two added: “They [journalists] need material that can be portrayed as presumptively accurate.”

This is very relevant in our case here. In Malawi power is too centralised, the President makes all the key appointments and decisions. This is one of the key reasons the incumbent president and their inner circle tend to have more coverage in the media, as they occupy all the key positions of the state and make all the crucial decisions that are considered “newsworthy” – they are a must-go-to people for key information that journalists and their institutions need.

 

* Jimmy Kainja is a traditional MaraPost columnist and for feedback email, jimmykainja@yahoo.co.uk

The Journalist Union of Malawi (Juma) is concerned with the conduct of government through its law enforcing agency over the questioning and arrest of Galaxy FM radio journalist Sylvester Namiwa, who also happens to be the Union’s Vice President.

We understand that Mr. Namiwa was cautioned and charged with publishing content likely to incite violence on Tuesday, October 22, 2013.

It is the view of Juma that the government should have followed civilized and proper channels as an aggrieved party to the purported offensive broadcast by Galaxy FM by either lodging an official complaint with the Media Council of Malawi (MCM) or Misa Malawi or Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra).

The use of state machinery like the Police when clear and appropriate channels of resolving media grievances are available is tantamount to gagging the press and suppressing freedom of expression and media freedom as such practice instills unnecessary fear in people that the government is entrusted to govern.

Government’s action in this instance has brought to the fore the need for the review and repeal of laws that restrict free speech, such as Criminal Defamation and other Insult Laws, which are used to silence critics and stifle media freedoms.

Although Juma does not condone professional misconduct by its members in the execution of the noble profession, we do not think the arrest of a journalist over professional misconduct when there are appropriate channels for lodging media-related complaints is the right thing for government to do.

Juma would like to echo sentiments by other professional media bodies such as Misa Malawi Chapter that those who have been aggrieved by any media house in its broadcast or publication should use available appropriate and professional channels of resolving their grievances like engaging MCM, Misa, or Macra and that they should desist from using government machinery and state organs to instill fear in journalists and the public.

Signed
Frederick Ndala Jnr

When Corruption orginates from the President’s office, firing the cabinet is only a distraction

In spite of numerous international accolades and goodwill, Malawi’s president Joyce Banda has returned last Wednesday to a country pulverized by stories of systematic and systemic corruption.

President Banda arrived amidst calls from critics for her to resign as the allegations of corruption have implicated almost all her senior ministers and her two sons who serve as her closest advisors. There were queries as to how civil servants and senior cabinet ministers had manipulated Malawi Government’s financial management system known as IFMIS to steal millions of taxpayer dollars.

President Banda was also questioned as to why she has failed to declare her assets as required by law ever since she ascended to the presidency after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, her predecessor. To counter claims of corruption leveled against her and her administration, President Banda held a defiant press conference upon arrival, declaring she would not bow down to calls by various critics for her to resign. Instead, she dissolved her cabinet the very next day.

The question that Malawians ought to pursue is this: How does firing or reshuffling the cabinet root out corruption when it is the office of the president that is chief of the corrupt departments, when the president herself is implicated, and when the corruption syndicate is allegedly led by the president’s sons?

Dissolving the cabinet may be a smooth public relations gimmick for the donor community she reveres so much, but it is nothing but window dressing and Malawians must realise this. Far from the dissolution being a way of solving any problem, all it does is substantiate the fact that President Banda is aware that her administration is rotten to the core. It also illustrates how dishonest politicians and businessmen can use the Malawi government’s financial management system to shroud in secrecy transactions aimed at looting and pillaging the nation’s wealth.

Indeed, it is important to remember that the “Capital Hill Cash-Gate Scandal” (named after the seat of government), has been orchestrated in the Office of the President herself. This is a shocking case of deceit and deception by senior politicians and unscrupulous businessmen, aided by the office of the president, to rob her own citizens of millions of tax dollars. It is a glaring example of the rottenness plaguing Malawian politics, and the depths to which individuals in positions of power and authority can stoop in enabling the wholesale plundering of national wealth from some of the poorest people in the world.

This has become one of the biggest fraud cases ever recorded in the country, involving the principal accountant in Banda’s office, Frank Mwanza. According to the state-appointed Anti-Corruption Bureau, he authorised the payment of MK1 billion ($3 million) to a ghost firm, in another instance, a junior officer who earns $100 a month was found with $25,000 cash at his house during a raid by the police. Ten government employees have so far been arrested over the past two weeks for fraud in this cash-gate scandal. In September, nine senior police officers were jailed for 14 years each for fraud involving $164,000.

On September 7, 2013, Patrick Sithole, an Accounts Assistant for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change was arrested for illegally being in possession of MK120 million (about US$310, 000), which was in different currencies. According to Malawi police, the arrest followed a tip off from Sithole’s housemaid, who had herself stolen part of the money and had been caught with it.
Following his arrest, Patrick Sithole was arraigned at the Magistrate’s court where he asked to be given bail. Lawyer Wapona Kita of Ralph, Arnold and Associates, represented him. Malawi’s current Minister of Justice, Ralph Kasambara, owns the firm of Ralph, Arnold and Associates. The said firm, and Wapona Kita, has frequently represented President Joyce Banda in various legal proceedings, and Kita is a close associate of Minister of justice Kasambara.

Because of the involvement of Kasambara’s law firm in the matter of Sithole, eyebrows were raised. What followed was the exposure of a corruption syndicate that goes all the way to Malawi’s State house and has full presidential blessing.

Investigators soon were able to establish that Patrick Sithole was only a conduit in a corruption mechanism that had been established to enrich President Joyce Banda, her top officials, and her ruling People’s Party. It was the discovery of this corruption syndicate that led to the shooting of Paul Mphwiyo, a budget director at the Ministry of Finance, and to the subsequent arrests of numerous top Capital Hill officials, all caught with millions hidden in their offices, cars and houses.

When Frank Mwanza an accountant in the Office of the President and Cabinet, and a close associate of President Banda, was arrested for having paid MK1 billion to a company called International Procurement Service, apparently for no services whatsoever, Malawi’s donors and international development partners were soon compelled to voice their concern.

In the absence of President Joyce Banda who had extended her trip to the 68th United Nations general assembly by 13 days, they called upon Malawi’s Vice President Khumbo Kachali. They asked for an explanation for the rampant corruption and an assurance that the administration was taking measures to deal with the situation. They wondered why each new day was bringing new headlines of yet another government official, either related to or a close associate of President Joyce Banda, found with millions of Kwacha in cash.

It was a scathing indictment to president Banda, coming amidst criticism that she is obsessed with international recognition and yet uninterested in domestic leadership, to the great disadvantage of ordinary Malawians.

President Joyce Banda’s public relations experts claim that these arrests following the exposure of rampant looting are a breakthrough in the fight against corruption. They insist that the system had been rotten for a long time and had simply reached its breaking point, and as evidence, they have pointed to some sporadic reports of theft in the public service such as the one that happened at the

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in 2006 when it was discovered upon auditing that MK480 million had been stolen there during the 2004 elections.

Yet those that defend President Banda’s administration with such arguments need to admit that for a president to come into the presidential office and sit there for almost 2 years before noticing such corruption is suspicious in itself. It needs to be pointed out that president Joyce Banda has previously served as a senior cabinet minister as well as vice president, thus she has been aware of the workings of the system which she has been a part of for years. The argument that in all that time she had no eyes with which to see corruption in the system and have a vision to overhaul it is rather disturbing.

What is even more preposterous is the fact that the president has conveniently come to this wonderful revelation only when her relative was shot in a corrupt deal involving monies that were supposed to be delivered to her. If this president takes all of two years (18 years if you put together all her time in a senior government position) to notice that things are wrong, how can she be trusted to transform a country at all when a presidential term lasts only 5 years?

It is in the wake of all these events that President Banda has decided that the solution is to have a cabinet reshuffle. President Banda’s supporters and less vigilant observers have cheered the move as one that demonstrates that the president is prepared to take the bold steps in addressing the rottenness that is polluting her administration. The truth of the matter, however, is that the President and her children are the ones that are at the heart of the corruption scandal. It is therefore foolhardy for anyone to consider that simply changing the cabinet members or re-assigning them to different ministries will solve this political debacle.

Yet critics maintain that President Banda is herself corrupt and that she has affirmed this by refusing to declare her assets in fear of having the whole nation know the true extent of her wealth. In the circumstances, it is not only shallow thinking, but downright foolish to cheer the president’s firing of her cabinet with the misguided hope that this action will stem the tide of corruption. When a thief decides to remove all other thieves from the equation, does this solve a thievery problem or it simply provides the thief even more unalloyed access to the loot?

Z Allan Ntata was previously the Special Legal Counsel to the President Bingu Wa Mutharika of the Republic of Malawi. His book, “Trappings of Power: Political Leadership in Africa” was published in November 2012. The book explores political leadership issues in Africa

“In the end,
we will remember,
not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends”

– Martin Luther King Jr. 

When Joyce Banda exercised her powers and fired her entire backroom team most of us knew, save for a few faces, most of her team would make it back into her reconstituted cabinet.

Nobody expected any prizes for guessing for this was an obvious fact.

For example, it was obvious that Ken Lipenga might have had the proverbial nine lives but if he survived the axe this time around then Abiti might have seen in the literati something only her could.

Look, I have said time without number that Bingu abused good old Ken by giving him a portfolio whose core duties he knew next to nothing about. As an academic, writer, essayist and newspaper editor, Mapwiya could have sat pretty at either Education or Information.

Why Bingu placed him at Finance beggars belief. This was torture of the worst kind, if you ask me.

Well, the guy collected quite a few frequent flyer points from his obligatory junkets to Washington. (Ironically he got the boot while on one of such sojourns in DC!)

But, if truth be told, the old dude was just a passenger at Finance. The guy is on the wrong side of 50 and has been juggling words all his life. To expect him to suddenly learn to interpret figures, statistics and graphs was some form of human rights abuse.

Well, he got handsomely rewarded for his troubles, but the price he has paid, a tattered reputation, is unquantifiable.

Look, cognisant of how pedestrian the boss was at figures, some clever chaps at the ministry sexed up Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) collection returns to make the Big Kahuna’s experimental Zero Deficit Budget look doable. Ken was made to cartoon himself before Parliament as he spewed out the figures he himself could not understand.

I can bet my last devalued kwacha that Ken genuinely did not know that the MRA tax collection figures were bolstered by commercial bank loans the first time he read them. When the cheeky George Nnesa called his bluff Ken’s protestation were genuine, that I can vouch for him.

His ‘boys’ took advantage of his ignorance at figures. I bet Joyce Banda, like me, believed Ken was innocent in the deception. But she did not help my former Editor-in-Chief by maintaining him in Finance. She should have shuffled him away from the figures.

I bet he did not even understand how this Ifmis animal works. But, as the political head of the Ministry of Finance, he had to take the blame for the ‘open sesame’ on public finances happened on his watch. He had to fall on his own sword.

Fare the well, Ken.

Almost everyone is in total agreement that Abiti could not have landed herself better hands than Maxwell Mkwezalamba as her choice of Lipenga’s replacement. The international civil servant is a tried and tested set of hands. Mkwezalamba was not dubbed ‘Africa’s Finance Minister’ for nothing when he headed the African Union Economic Commission.

But the 54-year-old technocrat will not be working alone at Capital Hill and beyond. He will have to juggle his principles against the political realities he will have to grapple with and strike a workable balance.

For instance, if Kamuzu Palace calls him to release K50 million for the People’s Party “immediately”, is he going to be man enough to ask “what for”? If a commercial bank calls him to verify whether the obscenely fat cheque some guy with a “familiar name” has brought has to be honoured, is he going to order “stop payment” and damn the consequences?

The taste in the pudding, they say, is in the eating.

Hey, while we are on the new cabinet, Fahad Assani has his work cut out for him. He famously revealed while he was Director of Public Prosecution that 30 percent of the national budget is wasted through fraud and corruption. The nation is looking up to him to perform some serious chemotherapy on this spreading national cancer.

And, hey, is it only me who thinks our leaders are sometimes discriminatory in some of their public appointments? From what I have read about her, Rachel Kachaje qualifies to book her place on the cabinet table.

But why should she be assigned the portfolio that looks after affairs of folks of her own type? Are we not being discriminatory to say that out of the 32 portfolios Kachaje is only fit to look after affairs of people with physical disabilities because she identifies with them?

By the way, why should the Gender ministry only be occupied by women as if ‘gender’ denotes ‘woman’? To the muckraker ‘gender’ simply means the state of being male, female, bi-sexual or transgender. Why departmentalise it then?

I know some clever muckraker will accuse me of contradicting myself as I have said above that good ol’ Ken was abused to be dumped at Finance while he was green at figures.

But, hey, we are talking competence here, not how we were born.

Meanwhile, can someone tell me what Eunice Kazembe’s ToRs will be at the Ministry of Good Governance? What is ‘Good Governance’? Does ‘Good Governance’ not loosely mean the desired objective of a people or a nation in conducting public affairs and manage public resource?

If you ask me, I think constitutional bodies like the Malawi Human Rights Commission, the Malawi Law Commission, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Office of the Ombudsman ably take care of this.

And, of course, there is the Ministry of Justice that should make sure everyone falls in line.

So what will Eunice Kazembe be doing at the Ministry of ‘Good Governance’?

I think instead of creating new, duplicitous – read: meaningless – portfolios we should be thinking of trimming the cabinet. For example, the ministries of Finance and Economic Planning and Development should go back to being one. Good ‘economic planning’ creates money for the coffers anyway.

And indeed is the core duty of the ministries of Gender, Children and Social Welfare and Disability and Elderly Affairs not essentially the same – social welfare? Why not collapsing them into one ministry?

Hey, congratulations Luscious Kanyumba for bouncing back! Your first assignment, aNgoni: open the university!